My Hero
by She Who Wields Vases
Summary: After the Second Titan War, Clarisse is taking it harder than most and Annabeth figures out why and learns more than she had anticipated. RueGard-Clarilena-Silena/Clarisse. RATED T FOR LANGUAGE AND MENTIONS OF MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH.


**Hello readers! I got back from SFAC a couple days ago and you guys have been awesome. Here is a short little oneshot. It's actually pretty sad, it made my friend cry when she read this but I hope you guys like it. I haven't completely forgotten about From Oath To Death, I just have major writer's block about it but plan on attempting to write a chapter. I love all of you guys and hope you enjoy this incredibly sad story. Disclaimer; I disclaim!**

* * *

Annabeth watched hesitantly and albeit a bit fearfully. Children of Ares were always fierce and violent but this is a whole new level of wrath. Clarisse was in the arena alone, mutilating training dummy after training dummy. Strikes to block or wound have become strikes to kill as painfully as possible. She's been hacking at them for hours with a sword and Annabeth watches, somewhat frightened by the daughter of Ares.

She's been keeping an eye on her since the war ended and Clarisse closed out anyone who dared to approach her. "Hey C-Clarisse?" She stammers and Clarisse drives her sword through the throat of a straw man before pausing. "What?" Her tone is flat, venomous and the daughter of Athena gulps. "I-I uh, was wondering if you wanted to talk maybe?" Annabeth stammers and Clarisse turns in a slow circle to face her. "And why the fuck would I want to do that?" Clarisse questions, her face as emotionless as stone. "Well after the war and everything you haven't really been the same and you lost your best frien-"

"Stop." Clarisse interrupts and Annabeth cringes. The brunette grabs her sword and starts walking towards Annabeth before walking past her. "Clarisse?"

"If you insist on talking about this then we're going to do it without you screwing up the facts." Clarisse growls without breaking stride and Annabeth scampers to catch up to her.

The warrior leads her deep into the forest before suddenly pivoting on her heel to face her. "Go on Dr. Phil." Clarisse crosses her arms, her leather gloves holding her biceps. "Well you lost someone close to you and you might feel responsible for Silena's death." Annabeth starts, careful not to say best friend. "Maybe because I am responsible?" Clarisse says and the blonde shakes her head. "No, Clarisse you aren't."

"Do you know what the name Nadia means?" Clarisse asks suddenly and Annabeth blinks. "Umm, hope I think? Yeah, it means hope." She says and Clarisse barks a rueful, huff of laughter. "That is what Silena was going to name her daughter." Clarisse says and Annabeth's eyes widen.

She didn't know Silena was pregnant when she rushed into battle. The blonde had no idea that the daughter of Aphrodite even wanted children.

"Was Beckendorf the father?" Annabeth asks and Clarisse shrugs. "Something like that."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." The blonde apologizes and Clarisse's hand drifts to her chest. "There's a lot that people don't know about Silena."

"We all knew her a little." Annabeth tries. Clarisse pulls a pair of dog tags out from under her shirt. "Did you know she was going to be married?" Clarisse asks and Annabeth shakes her head. Clarisse holds up a ring around the chains of her dog tags and Annabeth steps closer. The ring is breathtaking; a gold band with a gold rose and a diamond nestled in the center of it. It's beautiful and expensive looking. "Was that hers?" Annabeth asks and Clarisse nods, dropping her dog tags against her chest. "Were you and Silena were close?" Annabeth asks and she nods again.

"Close enough that I was going to help her raise her daughter so she wasn't alone. Close enough that I refused to go into battle so she wouldn't be alone but instead I managed to get a pregnant woman killed." Clarisse growls and Annabeth takes a step back. "I'm sorry. I, I wish I knew how you felt." Annabeth tries to sympathize and Clarisse looks at her with dark, cold eyes. "Do you want to know how it feels to have the person closest to you ripped away because you thought you knew better? Do you want everything you care about and hold close to be crushed into oblivion because you tried to protect them?" Clarisse snarls and Annabeth takes a fearful step back. "N-no?" The blonde stammers and the brunette huffs. "Trust me. It sucks, epicly." Clarisse mutters and Annabeth takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I'm glad we had this talk though." Annabeth says and Clarisse nods. "Yeah, thanks."

"I'm heading back to camp."

"I'll go back later."

"Okay. Do... Do you want this to be our secret?" Annabeth asks and Clarisse simply looks at her. "You're the daughter of Athena. Figure it out." Annabeth nods and turns on her heel before walking towards camp with tears prickling the backs of her eyes. She roughly wipes away the tears gathering before jogging to camp.

* * *

As the blonde walked away, Clarisse pulled off her leather gloves and dropped them on the forest floor. Nestled in between her left middle finger and pinky was the significant other to the ring around her necklace. Her first tear fell fatly onto the precious stone and she clenched her hand into a fist, holding her left in her right and squeezing her eyes shut in a vain attempt to halt any more tears from escaping. She lifted her eyes to the sky, the sky she had spent countless hours lying with her fianceé, holding hands and talking about menial things. She thought back to Silena's death,

_She was a hero, understand? A hero._

"My hero."


End file.
